Public defenders appearing in court by video after COVID-19 outbreak at Fresno Co. Jail
Public defenders appeared not to be in court Monday morning amid an outbreak of coronavirus at the Fresno County Jail.
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Public defenders appeared not to be in court Monday morning amid an outbreak of coronavirus at the Fresno County Jail.
Prosecutors and other attorneys also decided to instead appear in court through video conferences.
Before reports of the outbreak on Friday, public defenders were in courtrooms handling their criminal cases.
On Friday, 1,200 inmates at the north jail in Fresno County were quarantined after 13 of 25 inmates who were transferred to Wasco State Prison from the jail tested positive for the virus.
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The Fresno County Sheriff's Office said it tested the inmates for COVID-19 before the transfer, and their results came back negative. When the inmates arrived in Wasco, a second test was conducted by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Those tests returned positive.
The sheriff's office told Action News they'd begun contact tracing to determine where the outbreak may have started.
